A Manager for Muskie

Senator Edmund Muskie felt tired and ill. His replies on a television show were cold and argumentative, and one of his aides, Berl Bernhard, bluntly told Muskie that it was a bad performance. When Muskie publicly berated his staff for a bad press release, Bernhard protested firmly that such scoldings were not "particularly productive." The Senator scowled, then smiled. "Look, Nag," Muskie told Bernhard, "I'll stop knocking the staff if you'll stop telling the press I'm contentious and ill-tempered."

Last week Muskie selected Bernhard, 41, to direct his still unannounced presidential campaign. "There may be some people who feel they have to cushion me when there is unpleasant news, but they are wrong," says Muskie. "Berl doesn't cushion anything with me." A successful Washington lawyer both in and out of Government, Bernhard has a knack for employing humor to take the sting out of his stern judgments. "He will cut a guy's legs off if it has to be done," contends one close friend, "but he uses plenty of anaesthesia." Muskie prefers a woodsy Maine metaphor to explain Bernhard's style: "Even a moose has velvet on its horns part of the year."

A native of New York City and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth, Bernhard earned his law degree from Yale. He served as a Washington law clerk to Federal Judge Luther W. Youngdahl, a former Republican Governor of Minnesota. Joining the newly-created U.S. Civil Rights Commission in 1958, Bernhard became its staff director in 1961 and effectively gathered evidence of unfair treatment of blacks in the South.

Bernhard first met Muskie while serving as general counsel to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1967. Muskie, then heading the committee, impressed Bernhard with his succinct definition of duties: "All I want to know from you is if what we are doing is proper and lawful." The two have enjoyed an uncomplicated rapport during Muskie's political forays ever since. Bernhard served as a key writer and adviser in Muskie's 1968 vice presidential campaign.

In his new job, one of Bernhard's toughest tasks will be fund raising. He figures Muskie will need $1,500,000 before the presidential primaries begin next year, possibly $8,000,000 to compete in those elections, then another $25 million if he wins the nomination. Meanwhile, he wants Muskie to maintain a low profile while he bones up on the potential 1972 issues.

The Muskie campaign needs a skilled director. His staff was unprepared for the candidate's unusually fast start, and scheduling details have sometimes gone awry. Bernhard must also avoid two conflicting dangers that threaten the front runner: overexposure that could bore voters before the primaries, and an overly cautious approach to issues that might feed the contention of critics that Muskie is indecisive.

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